Ting Poo is following up “Val,” her acclaimed 2021 documentary about actor Val Kilmer, with a portrait of another industry vet. She’s helming a doc about five-time Grammy winner Christina Aguilera that’s being produced by Time Studios and Roc Nation. A press release announced the news.

The doc promises to offer viewers “unprecedented access to Christina’s life story” and “open up her personal archive for a wildly creative look into the past and present, from her early days as a pre-teen Disney star to her current recognition as an international icon with one of music’s most celebrated voices,” per its synopsis. Diving into both her personal and professional life, the

Alexis Neophytides is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and educator based in New York City. Her work centers around community and how we find meaning in people and place. She is the co-creator, co-director, and producer of “Neighborhood Slice,” a public television documentary series that tells the stories of longtime New Yorkers who’ve held fast to their corner of the city despite gentrification. She produced and directed the series “9.99,” for which she won a NY Emmy. Her short documentaries “Doctor Kong,” “Coney Island’s for the Birds,” and Vimeo Staff Pick “Ethan 2018”  screened at festivals worldwide. “Dear Thirteen” is her first feature length documentary. She is a Sundance Institute

“Everything you said about her just sounded like it was made up,” we’re told in a new trailer for Valerie Kontakos’s “Queen of the Deuce.” One of our most anticipated titles screening at DOC NYC, ” the doc recounts the life and exploits of Greek-born business magnate Chelly Wilson. 

“Queen of the Deuce” examines the legacy of Wilson’s gay porn cinema empire and her social, entrepreneurial dominion over “The Deuce,” New York’s infamous 42nd Street. Described in the synopsis as “a Christmas-celebrating Jewish grandma, a lesbian who married men, and a proud owner of porn theaters in 1970s NYC,” Wilson was a walking paradox whose self contradictions propelled her rise

“I hope [the movie makes] people have a deeper appreciation for how wonderful and annoying family can be,” says Kristen Bell in our exclusive featurette for “The People We Hate at the Wedding.” Directed by Emmy winner Claire Scanlon, the comedy sees American siblings Alice (Bell, “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window”) and Paul (Ben Platt, “Dear Evan Hansen”) begrudgingly head to the English countryside to attend the wedding of their estranged, wealthy half-sister, Eloise (Cynthia Addai-Robinson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”) with their mother, Donna (Allison Janney, “Mom”).

In our look behind the scenes, Bell tells us,

Karen Cho (曹嘉伦) is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker known for her socio-political documentaries that explore themes of identity, immigration, and social justice. Her first film, “In The Shadow Of Gold Mountain,” explored the Chinese Canadian immigration experience, the legacy of the Head Tax and Exclusion act, and examined how legislated racism in Canada affected the Chinese side of her family while her European ancestors were rewarded for immigrating. Cho’s TV work has touched on subjects like art and identity, Indigenous health and wellness, Japanese Canadian internment, Quebecois cuisine, Vancouver’s downtown east side, and artist activists around the world. In 2018, Cho was nominated for a Best Directing Canadian Screen Award

Women directors are poised to make a major splash at the Australian Directors Guild Awards this year. “For the first time ever, women dominate the major feature film categories with five out of the seven directors nominated for best direction in a feature film (budget A$1 million or over) being women and four of the six nominees in the best direction in a debut feature film category also being women,” Variety reports.

Helmers up for best direction in a feature film include Cate Shortland for Marvel blockbuster “Black Widow,” Sophie Hyde for sex comedy “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” and Leah Purcell for revisionist Western “The Drover’s Wife: The

Leading up to Transgender Awareness Week, Black Public Media (BPM) has released “I Am Who I Say I Am,” a docuseries capturing feel-good stories about gender affirmation. Sophia Clark (“First Person PBS”) directs the three-part short film series that is now available on BPM’s YouTube channel and social media pages. 

Part of BPM’s BE HEARD! social media campaign, “I Am Who I Say I Am” follows three different subjects as they discuss the importance of honoring preferred pronouns and of engaging in open, compassionate dialogue about gender. 

“‘I Am Who I Say I Am’ aims to begin the process of changing hearts by first changing our habits, based on the

It’s bad bitch o’clock: the trailer for HBO’s “Love, Lizzo” has dropped. The doc offers insight into the life, career, and work ethic of the inimitable singer-rapper as never seen before. “It took so much hard work to get to where I am today,” the “Truth Hurts” singer, born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, reflects. “But I found my voice. Now when people see me on stage, they see themselves.”

“Love, Lizzo,” contains three year’s worth of footage collected during the Cuz I Love You world tour as well as the recording of her fourth studio album “Special,” released this July. “This intimate documentary allows the multi-platinum artist to get candid about

The trailer for the Dominican Republic’s Oscar submission, “Bantú Mama,” has arrived. The drama tells the story of Emma (Clarisse Albrecht), a French woman of African descent who is on the run and trying to elude Dominican authorities after narrowly escaping arrest. “If you help me, I’ll help you,” she’s told by a young girl bargaining for mutual protection and survival in the most dangerous district of Santo Domingo.

Emma is eventually taken in by a group of three children who guide her as their protégée in exchange for acting as a maternal figure to them, causing “her destiny [to] change inexorably,” the film’s synopsis teases.

The trailer shows Emma’s